Nissan Motorsports International Co., Ltd. (NISMO) welcomes Takao Katagiri to NISMO, where he takes adult a position of President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The association also congratulates Michael Carcamo on his new position as a Program Director.

Takao Katagiri will parallel offer as a President and CEO of Autech Japan, Inc., and a Head of NISMO Business Office of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., roles he has taken over from Shoichi Miyatani, who late during a finish of final month. Katagiri, who was before Executive Vice President, Chairman of Management Committee Japan, Asia, and Oceania segment of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., brings over thirty 3 years of Nissan knowledge to a role.

Michael Carcamo, who was many recently Program Director for Nissan’s LM P1 programme, now takes adult a position of Global Motorsport Director of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. as good as Program Director during NISMO. Carcamo has been with Nissan for 13 years. Before fasten a tellurian motorsport team, he hold a position of Director of Vehicle Program Management and partner Chief Vehicle Engineer in Mexico.

As a 2016 deteriorate gears adult opposite a globe, here is what Mike had to contend about a year ahead:

Mike Carcamo QA

Q: The 2017 GT-R was denounced in New York recently, how critical is GT3 racing with a GT-R as a flagship code builder?

MC: “The GT-R launch has positively been good for a code and as fortifying Blancpain Pro Endurance Champions a couple between GT-R and a GT3 should be unequivocally clear. There is no improved place than GT3 to denote a many advanced, polished and on-going sports car.

“This year, we’re expanding a debate to margin dual cars in both a Blancpain Endurance and Sprint Series and we’re stability a American programmes in Pirelli World Challenge. We already scored an extraordinary second place during Bathurst this year and a GT300 automobile has been unequivocally quick in contrast in Super GT.

“There is additional good news appearing on a patron front as well.

“All a reward automotive brands contest in GT3 since it’s a many manifest couple between racing and highway cars – a good place to showcase your capabilities.”

Q: At a WEC and ELMS pre-season exam recently, Nissan powered 57% of a whole field. How critical is antecedent racing to a brand, quite with a fact that we don’t have an LMP1 programme anymore?

MC: “Having 57% of all a cars on a grid with Nissan powertrains is flattering considerable and altogether we have a unequivocally clever story with a engine programs.

“I consider we should be unequivocally unapproachable of a victories we’ve achieved in a several classes. And a teams have apparently selected Nissan to give them a best possibility to win. Our attribute and joining with a FIA and a ACO for continuation and antecedent racing hasn’t waivered. We simply need to find a best opportunities to showcase a record and a code in that space.

“Through a partnership with Renault this year, and a Algarve Pro group we’ll be promulgation Chris Hoy on a highway to Le Mans and final year’s Renault Sport Trophy Elite champion Andrea Pizzitola who will join a group from Le Mans onwards. we consider there should be no doubt about a joining in stability antecedent and continuation racing.”

Q: The code was unequivocally successful in Japan final year winning both Championships in Super GT. How critical is it to showcase that outcome both globally and locally in Japan?

MC: “The fact that a domicile and many of a engineering staff are formed in Yokohama, it’s a good source of honour to win on your home field.

“Winning 4 of a final 5 championships in GT500 is an implausible feat and those efforts in GT500 and GT300 are indeed common globally for all a racing programs.

“There’s a large advantage to carrying a tellurian proceed in racing and achieving success in one marketplace and one area should interpret into success in other areas as well.”

Q: We’re a usually manufacturer in a universe with factory-backed programs in Japan, Europe, US and Australia. How critical is that tellurian opinion to a brand?

MC: “The ability to run successful programs around a universe is subsequent from some of a same truth of a whole brand. We’re a tellurian classification with a best resources and capabilities that aim to accommodate a patron needs. Our tellurian automobile expansion programmes concede us to constraint a best of a best ideas for all a projects.

“It’s massively critical for us to be means to denote that capability around a world. You have to remember, any of a championships is different. They all have their possess singular challenges, they’re run on opposite forms of circuits with opposite formats and therefore we’re constantly bettering to secure a competitiveness in those sold series.

“It unequivocally is an item to be means to contest during any given time any where around a world.”

Q: In a Blancpain Endurance Championship final year we had Japanese motorist Katsumasa Chiyo as partial of a championship-winning motorist line-up. How critical was that win for a brand?

MC: “Chiyo and all of his teammates did an extraordinary pursuit final year. This year he moves behind to Japan to contest in GT500 for a initial time that again will exam his skills and unequivocally capacitate him to grow.

“That knowledge abroad and that success internationally will also assistance his certainty behind in Japan, so we’re unequivocally vehement about that.

“Mitsunori Takaboshi has got some large boots to fill though I’m certain that with a NISMO group and a support programmes we have, a goals will make him usually as successful as he can be. “We’re unequivocally vehement about a motorist sell programmes of carrying drivers come from one nation to another. This year Jann Mardenborough creates a large jump over to Japan as good in a GT300 as good as Japanese F3. So this event allows not usually a teams though a drivers to grow enormously and again pity information and best practices is what a tellurian association should be all about.”

Q: How most work goes into creation certain these drivers are gentle in their new sourroundings when they are vital in a new country?

MC: “It’s partial of a substructure of a program, it’s not usually a racing, though it’s about a people and a drivers and a support to get them to grasp their goals.

“Jann will still have a motorist manager and support from GT Academy in sequence to continue his expansion routine as a motorist and to culturally adapt. All of those needs will be usually as upheld as he was behind home.

“It’s a same for a drivers from Mexico, France or Australia will be upheld when they come to bottom themselves in a UK for their racing activities. That’s a partial of a strength that we have – carrying a good organizational bottom by that we can support people to grasp their best results.”

Q: Why is motorsports so critical for Nissan and NISMO?

MC: “Motorsports can substantially be best tangible as a ultimate countenance of building and progressing teamwork. In motorsports we can pull over a typical into a unknown. “Does that always work out? Sometimes no. But if we can't learn from mistakes afterwards we can’t innovate either.

“Another aspect is a people themselves. Every chairman in motorsports grows. It doesn’t unequivocally matter that duty you’re articulate about. We speak about engineers in motorsports though really, each pursuit within a classification is pushed to a extent and that unequivocally is what creates a good team.

“Motorsports enhances that in a approach that zero else can. You live a unequivocally opposite knowledge when we have to contest on a week-in week-out basis. Nissan and NISMO has a prolonged and abounding story in racing. We’ve had a lot of success with opposite forms of engine racing that helps a association grow. we consider motorsports is partial of a DNA and something we continue since it’s what we do, it’s how we best demonstrate ourselves.”

Q: From a fan viewpoint a code has been unequivocally open confronting to a open in a past, how critical is that philosophy?

MC: “It’s unequivocally important. We know how successful it has been. The fans unequivocally appreciated a honesty and a entrance to a teams. We devise to continue that. We’ll find new ways to rivet with them and concede them to see behind a scenes as to what creates a motorsports group successful. The fans are what creates a foe probable so we need to continue to find ways to excite them and rivet them in what we do.”

Q: How gratified are we with a expansion of a Nissan Micra Cup in Canada?

MC: “The Micra Cup was a large success in a initial year with even some-more expansion 2016. This year a array spreads from Quebec by Ontario, and includes some high-profile ancestral venues like Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and Circuit Trois-Rivières. You routinely wouldn’t demeanour during a automobile like a Micra as a racing car, though a turn of foe final year was well-developed and generated a lot of unrestrained with drivers and fans. The good thing a championship provides is for drivers to be means to contest in a automobile that sojourn roughly stock. This creates an impossibly cost-effective choice for a competitors – a ideal height for somebody to flog off their racing career. I’m certain we’re going to see some stars of a destiny start to emerge from this championship.”